Dave Levy Online

Nicholas & Alexandra, the last of the Romanovs

It just reminds me of the fact that I have
never studied that period of history properly. My elder son is however; his
History "A" Level course has spent three terms studying modern
Russian ( & hence Soviet History). This is what attracted him, as the school has for many years visited Russia, sadly for his year, they decided to stop it. Actually the film was made in 1971 at the
height of the cold war and is very dated in its production values, let alone
its politics. The film is made after Massie's book of the same name and his
story is told as a great personal drama. The film does better at trying to
cover the social movements vying to modernise the Tsarist state, but its nearly
35 years old and was made only three years after the Soviet Union invaded
Czechoslovakia.

There are two great scenes I really enjoy! The first is at an editorial
board meeting of "Iskra" (it might have been "Pravda"), the
newspaper of the Bolshevik party prior to the 1st World War. Lenin says,
"Who wrote this rubbish? Obviously you Trotsky?", thus distilling the
fifty year argument that split the world's Left to one line of personal trivia.
Secondly, Lenin arrives at the Finland Station, St. Petersburg (famously aided
by the German Imperial Government) where in the film to the backdrop of
(probably inaccurately) the Marseillaise, he calls for "Revolution!.
Revolution Now!". Now there's a transitional programme! - You don't get
writing like this any more.
. Here is a web site
with sheet music and audio files for the Marseillaise.